What is Happiness? A Harvard study that’s been going on for 85 years
Harvard University began a study in 1938 that has lasted to this day, a study that is now 85 years old and is in its fourth generation of researchers working on the study.
The initial goal of the study was to follow for a few years a group of over 700 people to determine what would make those people happy when they became adults. The idea was not to follow these people for so many years, but given how valuable the data taken is, the researchers decided to continue until today.
In 1938 they selected more than 700 teenagers, did medical and psychological examinations, let some time pass, and then called these people back for more examinations and tests.
The study has lasted so long that today it is the fourth generation of researchers who are working on the study, because the previous ones dropped out, or died. Today there are no longer 700 individuals being studied because most of them have died. Today there are about 90 individuals still being studied.
This study is very valuable because it has the data of a lifetime of hundreds of people who have had very different lives. Some have developed schizophrenia and depression, some have taken their own lives, some have become aggressive, some have been arrested, some have taken someone else’s life, people…
